Let's have a proper, delicious meal for lunch. Instead, have a light 0.5 meal for dinner and maintain an empty stomach the next morning.

“Do we eat to live, or live to eat?”

This is an age-old philosophical question about human life and eating habits. While humans must eat to sustain life, eating itself is also a joy of life. We eat to live, but humans also enjoy being alive by eating.

However, in modern society where food is abundant, this question is becoming increasingly irrelevant. This is because while it's hard to find people who eat solely to survive, the number of people seeking maximum satisfaction within a limited number of meals is growing.

To Cure Metabolic Diseases, Conserve 'Digestive Enzymes'

As a result, metabolic diseases have become a burden for humanity. Metabolic diseases are, literally, illnesses caused by problems in metabolism, with obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and cancer being prime examples. Most metabolic diseases are incurable, making them difficult to treat with just a few pills. So, how can metabolic diseases be cured?

To put it directly, the fastest way to cure metabolic diseases is to conserve digestive enzymes. These two types of enzymes in the body, digestive enzymes and metabolic enzymes, are in a seesaw relationship: when one goes up, the other goes down.

When we eat food, over 70% of our body's enzymes are mobilized to the gastrointestinal tract. Digestive enzymes operate at a ratio of 7, and metabolic enzymes at 3. Conversely, in a fasting state, metabolic enzymes become 7, and digestive enzymes become 3.

This means that prolonging the time your stomach is empty allows metabolic enzymes more time to work, opening a path to treating metabolic diseases.

Fasting therapy is a natural healing method that has been practiced for a long time in human history for religious and therapeutic purposes. Our ancestors also automatically had periods of fasting during times of food scarcity, such as the "barely-getting-by" period (boritgogae). However, modern humans, who have lost this experience, need to intentionally fast to conserve metabolic enzymes.

For severe illnesses, prolonged fasting (requiring expert guidance) ranging from one week to one month is sometimes practiced. However, for metabolic diseases in their early stages, intermittent fasting can be very beneficial. Intermittent fasting typically involves maintaining a 16-hour fasting period per day.

Morning: 0, Lunch: 1, Dinner: 0.5

At our Korean medicine clinic, we recommend intermittent fasting (Bokbeop therapy) with the following eating schedule: △ Breakfast: Fasting △ Lunch: Regular meal △ Dinner: 0.5 meal. A 0.5 meal means not fully eating or not eating at all, but rather having a light meal such as an egg or a few cherry tomatoes.

Furthermore, even with one regular meal a day, overeating is prohibited, and it is fundamental to avoid desserts like snacks and cakes. Snacking thoughtlessly is also a cause of indigestion and should be stopped.

Maintaining a 16-hour fasting period not only increases the time metabolic enzymes have to work, which can lead to disease treatment, but also lowers insulin levels, resulting in weight loss and a clearer complexion as toxins are eliminated.

In addition, fasting therapy and mindful eating (soshik yobeop) activate 'Sirtuin', known as longevity genes, and induce cellular autophagy (self-eating), which has numerous health benefits, including treating inflammatory diseases.

◆ Director Park Chan-young

Director of Eoseongcho Korean Medicine Clinic in Sadang-dong, Seoul. Doctor of Korean Medicine from Dongguk University. He caused a detoxification sensation in Korea by appearing on health programs such as MBN's 'Eomjiui J Wang'. His books include 'Atopy and Acne Cured with Eoseongcho', 'Seasonings are Medicine', and 'The Miracle of Detoxification'.